Stay Home Summer Camp 2020 Archives: Cooking Camp!

Mamas Facing Forward Stay Home Summer Camp was a project I developed during the isolated summer of 2020. For each theme I provide a menu of options to choose from, including: virtual learning resources, easy craft & snack ideas, simple activities, books, and movies/TV.
Trust me, whether you do it for a full week or just for a day, there’s something magical about doing a bunch of activities that all share the same theme. In fact, even though my kids will be traveling and attending regular summer camp this year, they’ve also requested some Stay Home Camp – so stay tuned for a couple of new themes!! I’ve also added “field trip ideas” to themes from past years as well.
I hope these ideas will provide your family with a little fun – while at the same time making summer a bit easier for you!!
Love, Mariah

COOKING CAMP!

Our menu for this week is a little bit different! This week we have: ideas for learning, crafts and activities that are based on or involve food, ideas for things you can actually eat, and (of course!) screen time breaks that are on theme! I’ve also included a free printable you can hang up at home while you work on this theme.

Download

NEW! Field Trip Ideas:

To local parks with food features
To the grocery store
To a cooking store
To a farmers market or food truck
To a food court
To the library to get more books about cooking

Things To Learn:

How to draw (Source: Art for Kids Hub)
- Avocado
- Banana split
- Cheeseburger
- Eggs & Bacon
- French fries
- Ice Cream
- Pie
- Pizza
- Popcorn
- S’more
- Taco
- Toast
- Waffle

Explore together online
- Brain POP Arts & Music (If your school does not provide you with a BrainPOP account already, you can request free access during school closures)
  - Carbohydrates
  - Food Safety
  - Nutrition
  - Organic food
- Food Network Cooking with Kids
- How To Cake It
- Nutrition.gov

Food-based Crafts & Activities:

Celery Science
- Recommended materials: celery stalks with leaves, glasses, food coloring
- Instructions: Prepare several glasses of colored water by adding food coloring. Put a freshly cut celery stalk with the leaves still attached in each glass. Set the experiment aside and watch what happens over the course of a few days!

Edible Marshmallow Play Dough
- Recommended materials: large marshmallows, corn starch, coconut oil, neon food coloring
- Instructions: OneLittleProject

Foodie Printables for Drawing and Coloring
- Free printables: Melissa & Doug

Paper Ice Cream Cone
- Recommended materials: construction paper, scissors, glue
- Instructions: Cut out one triangle and several circles. Glue together to look like an ice cream cone. Use whatever other craft supplies you have on hand to add decorations!

Simple Paper Plate Watermelon
- Recommended materials: paper plate, construction paper, glue
- Instructions: Rip up red, green, and black construction paper – ripping the black into the smallest pieces. Glue pieces on to half of a paper plate to make it look like a slice of watermelon.

Vegetable Stamping
- Recommended materials: paper, paint, the ends of vegetables you would usually throw away
- Instructions: Craftulate

Things You Can Actually Eat!

Bake Something Together
- Instructions: Get out your aprons and bake your favorite recipe together! Whether it has a lot of ingredients or it’s a super simple muffin mix, my kids always seem to enjoy baking.

Easy Pizza Recipes for Kids
- Recommended materials: crust (bagel, French bread, pre-made dough, pita bread, Boboli), sauce, cheese, toppings
- Instructions: Your Kids Table
- Bonus: Read Pizza for the Queen!
- Bonus: Free printable pizza word search

Funny Animal Faces Toast Treats
- Recommended materials: bread, Nutella/cream cheese/peanut butter, banana, strawberries, blueberries
- Instructions: All She Cooks

Homemade Butter
- Recommended materials: heavy whipping cream, jar with a lid
- Instructions: Little Bins Little Hands

No Churn Ice Cream
- Recommended materials: heavy whipping cream, sweetened condensed milk, flavoring of your choice, mixer
- Instructions: Boulder Locavore

Rainbow Pasta
- Recommended materials: pasta, food coloring
- Instructions: tbsp.

Rainbow Toast
- Recommended materials: milk, food coloring, bread
- Instructions: Learn Play Imagine

Taste Tray Lunch
- Recommended materials: cupcake tin, lots of different foods to taste
- Instructions: Serve a tasting lunch in a fun way – in a cupcake tin! Fill each spot with something different to taste. Make sure to have a few favorites and a few new items to try.